As lawyers and students sifted through the latest batch of pleas for help recently, at the Innocence Project of Florida, they paused over a one case.
A man has been imprisoned since 1995 for the attempted rape of a woman in a drainage ditch behind a convenience store. The main evidence tying him to the crime is that he was wearing a similar-looking cap to one seen on a suspect and found by the ditch. Plus, his pants may have been damp, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Those working at the Innocence Project would like to test the cap for the man's DNA, but it has been destroyed. The recommendation: Check to make sure the cap really was destroyed. Sometimes, officials say evidence no longer exists when in fact it does.
Alan Crotzer knows that from personal experience, the newspaper recounts. Now 48, he insisted for years that he was innocent of the rapes of which he was accused. DNA evidence in the case supposedly had been destroyed ... but was found in an old filing cabinet.
Today, Crotzer makes a point of stopping by the Innocence Project offices on a regular basis. "I want to give hope and pride," he says, "to those involved in this."
Some 3,000 convicts have written to seek help in the six years the Florida office of the Innocence Project has been open. Nine out of 10 have received a rejection letter.